Field
This invention relates to systems, methods, and devices for automated ordering, dispensing, reporting, and billing of medication and the associated reporting and documentation of the administration of medication.
Description of the Related Art
A common scenario with respect to the ordering, dispensing, reporting, billing and documentation of a prescribed medication begins with a physician's handwritten order. This handwritten order must be transmitted to the pharmacy; typically the order is faxed. In other instances, the order can be entered into an electronic computerized physician order entry system “CPOE”. A person at the pharmacy reviews the physician order and enters the order into the pharmacy's order management system. This is also the case even where the order is an electronic order such as like one entered into a CPOE system. That is, some sort of manual data entry step takes place to get the order into the pharmacy's order management system. After the data is manually entered, the drug interaction and allergy verification takes place, which may be performed by a software application which is part of the CPOE system or the pharmacy's order management system. Once the drug interaction and allergy verification step is complete, the pharmacist approves the order, which allows it to be filled, and then the drug is dispensed and packaged.
A common way to dispense medications is in a 30 day or a 7 day supply. In long-term care and other institutional-like settings, for example, dispensed medications are delivered to the facility where they will be administered to the patient 150. If there is a change to a patient's prescription during the 30 day cycle, for example, for which the medication was dispensed, then the unused medication must be returned or destroyed. This adds an additional burden to facilities in that they must adhere to proper destruction procedures, and document them accordingly. Dealing with ordered medications which have been dispensed and delivered, but which are no longer current, places a heavy financial burden on payers, (e.g. health care facilities, insurance companies, patients, and the like), and on the pharmacies because many times they are paying for a supply of medications that the patient never uses.
Regarding the administration of the medication, regulations require that the administration of the medication must be documented with a certain degree of specificity and accuracy. Regulations also require a review of such documentation, for example, on a periodic basis. The administration process is further complicated by brand and generic drugs and multiple brands within the generic medications. Accurate maintenance of the records requires the prescriber, dispensing pharmacy, and the administering system and personnel to be in sync with respect to the identification of the medications.
Patient symptom gathering is another area of concern with respect to the accuracy and validity of common practices. At patient touch points, clinicians are often required to listen to a patient describe symptoms and enter those symptoms in a structured language that allows medical personnel to understand how the clinician views the patient report of symptoms. This process naturally introduces misinformation, clinician bias, information gaps, and other factors that contribute to the recorded symptom being different than that reported by the patient. Patients generally report symptoms (e.g. side effects) related to an administration of a medication sooner and with more specificity than is often reported in clinical studies, and the like.
During a patient interview (e.g. office visit), symptoms may not always be reported because clinicians and patients are distracted from this activity by reviewing test results and the like. Ensuring that accurate, patient generated symptom reports are captured at least with each patient touch point may be a critical deficiency in medical practice. Also, in a report authored by a patient, the symptoms tend to be more accurately described than when the same patient is interviewed (orally) by a clinician. Ensuring accurate and timely side effect reporting may be critical to proper and effective medication management.
It is therefore an object of the invention to address the shortcomings described above, along with others that are apparent in this disclosure.